


War Story

by indigo_blue



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - War, Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-16
Updated: 2013-11-16
Packaged: 2018-01-01 18:13:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1047023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indigo_blue/pseuds/indigo_blue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Katie's struggle to survive as her country is torn apart by war leads her to make some difficult decisions</p>
            </blockquote>





	War Story

War Story.

 It’s amazing what you can do with just one piece of metal in your hand. 

 

What you can make other people do.

 

You just have to point at them and _look_. Their dignity, all their morals, all their thoughts go out the window.

 

And the whole time, they’re looking, they’re staring; they can’t take their eyes off you.

 

They don’t believe you’ll pull the trigger. But you might.

 

You just might.

 

They stare at you with raw fear in their eyes, begging you. ‘Don’t, please don’t”

 

Over and over.

 

pleasedon’tpleasedon’tpleasedon’tpleasedon’tpleasedon’t

 

It’s amazing what you become with a certainpiece of metal in your hand.

 

Dangerous.

 

Ruthless.

 

A killer.

 

When I was in infants’ school we were forbidden even to make the shape with our hands. 

Every soldier, every spy who ran around that playground had a cheeky smile on his face, because the game was always more fun when he was breaking the rules.

 

When I was thirteen, my best friend told me that her friend’s cousin’s ex-boyfriend would sell you a gun.

 

“You wouldn’t even have to give him money,” she whispered to me during our Biology lesson. “He’s completely crazy; you can pay him in anything.”

 

I wondered if she’d done a deal with this person herself. 

 

I wondered what reasons she’d had for needing to make a deal.

 

I decided she probably wanted the feeling of power. Bella was very small and weak back then and there were always older kids pushing her around. 

 

She’d like to know something that they didn’t; she’d like to have a secret that was dangerous for other people, not for herself. She’d definitely like to have the means of bringing the older kids to a very… _unfortunate_ end.

 

Thinking all of this through as I walked home after school that day made me realise I wanted, no I _needed_ that feeling of power for me.

 

 

Four years on I’m here, weapon in hand. 

 

I owe Bella my life. Without her, when the soldiers came…I don’t think I’d have got out of there. 

 

It’s not the same. The gun in my back pocket’s a necessity. It’s not the same as the soldiers. It’s self defence, nothing else. Isn’t it?

I look out of the window in the house I’m hiding in to remind myself of the situation.

 

It’s a mess.

 

The windows of parked cars are smashed, shards of glass fallen into the road. The walls and fences around people’s homes are falling down, adding bricks and rubble to the debris in the road. The plants in gardens are dying because nobody’s been out to look after them. When people do leave their houses, they have more important things on their minds.

 

And then I see him standing at the end of the road. A Zlobekian soldier. He’s wearing a helmet with a torch on it, dark combat trousers and a green button up shirt. And he’s holding a gun.

 

That’s it. I run to the back of the house where I can’t be seen. I grab a rucksack and I fill it with the essential things: any food I can find, some clothes and some money. 

I don’t want to stay here anymore. I can’t be on my own. We’ll only survive this war, this mess, if we stick together.

 

As a last thought, I take the gun out of my pocket and I kick it under the table, away from me, out of sight. I don’t want it anymore. If I’m going out there, I’ll do it properly. 

 

I swing the rucksack up onto my back and then I climb out the window into the garden 

I run, keeping going no matter what, always checking behind me. I’m not followed.

 

I see a garage, very old and very small. It has tiny slit-windows in the sides of its walls and light is shining through them. I hear people talking inside. I almost run straight in. Then I remember how dangerous that is. It could be a Zlobekian soldier meeting in there or something.

 

I go round the sides to one of the windows. It’s high above my head so I climb up to see inside. 

 

When I see who is inside I nearly fall off the window ledge in surprise.

 

I can’t believe my luck. Inside are my entire family, right from my little brother through to my great-grandma. 

 

I thought I’d lost them. They went missing weeks ago and I got left alone. That was right before the Zlobekians came. Just after I bought the gun. 

 

It feels like years ago. 

 

I jump down and run around to the garage door. I’m so excited I almost forget to check around me before I go in.

 

“Katie!”

 

Here with my mum’s arms around me after all this time, I feel like a kid again. I feel safe for the first time in ages. I feel like we can get through this war. I know we can.

 

*

 


End file.
